Beta Disk Interface User Manual
Contents
1. following structure and the line can he anywhere within the BASIC program line number RANDOMISE USR 15363 REM D 0 S comands For example If you wish to run a program called sketch which is stored on disk from line 300 in your BASIC program then all you have to do is to have the following line in your program 300 RANDOMISE USR 15363 REM RUN sketch 16 HOW TO CONVERT PROGRAMS FROM CASSETTE TO DISK Loading from cassette to disk You can achieve this in your BASIC program by using the line PANDOMISE USR 15363 REM LOAD filename For example If the LOAD command in your cassette version is 200 LOAD filename Then it can be replaced by 200 RANDOMISE USR 15363 REM LOAD filename Saving from cassette to disk The process is similar to the LOADING process described in F 1 For example If the SAVE command in your cassette version is 200 SAVE filename Then it can be replaced by 200 RANDOMISE USR 15363 REM SAVE filenae 17 G TO CALL DOS COMMANDS FROM MACHINE CODE PROGRAM When calling DOS commands from BASIC program e r ANDS USR 15363 REM LOAD examnle To run above cammand in Machine code all vou have to do is to fool the system by alterinr the BASIC variable CH ADD to point to an address line buffer created by your machine code program For example If you use a buffer address 40000 then the above cammand will be set to address code comment 40000 234 REM PASIC R2. specify the file tyne as well if the file is not a PASIC program file e c ERASE filename for a basic program file ERASE filename CODE for a machine coded program file ERASE filename DATA for a data file LOAD This command vill allow you to load a program from disk to your Spectrum Please note that if there is insufficient memory in your Spectrum you will get an error message ERROR 4 When LOADing is complete and without error you are automatically return to Spectrum BASIC and the program is listed Example LOAD fileone When loading Machine Code prozram it can be relocated to a different address Example LOAD filename CODE 36000 The Machine Code program is loaded into RAM starting from 36000 10 C 4 MERGE This comand is used to combine two or more BASIC program files i e a number of programs can be merged to form a large program Tor example MERGE OLD to merge prozram OLD with the program in PAM MERGE B NEW to merge program NEW in disk drive B with the program in RAM MOVE After a file has been deleted from disk a gap is left behind As you continue to store programs onto the disk eventually there will not be enough continuous storage space to store your program When this happens the retrieval and storage time for your program will increase fo to ensure this does not happen you can use this command to repack the files on the disk in order to get rid of these holes No
3. vill get no error If the disk is faulty then you will get an error nrompt In this case you are advised to return the faulty disk to your dealer Let us do one example Suppose you have a disk drive which you call AM you name the disk BLUEPETER and the password PETER Then you will see the following on the screen A gt RUN format CODE Mini floppy Format Ver 2 2 c 1984 Technology Research Ltd 1 40 track single sided 2 80 track single sided 3 40 track double sided 4 80 track double sided Q s quit Which format Assuming you are using a 40 track single sided disk drive then you will select 1 The the screen vill show 40 track sinzle side Which drive A B C D Menu A your input is required here Please insert disk in drive A hen you are ready type F for format V for verify Q for quit F Please type in a password PETER Please type a name for this disk BLUEPETER formatting track 00 reading track 00 formatting track 01 reading track 01 and so on until it reaches track 39 0 Error s Which Drive A B C D Menu If you wish to proceed to format more than one disk then you type in the name of the disk drive and repeat the above procedure EXAMPLE 3 CHANGE DISK PASSWORD I don t like the Software disk nassword how do I change it You have to know the password before you can chance it to another word of your preference Let us assume that you have already ty
4. EM code 40001 58 t 40002 239 LOAD RASIC LOAD code 40003 34 40004 101 e 40005 120 x 40006 97 a 40007 109 n file name example 40008 112 p 40009 198 1 40010 101 e 40011 34 9 40012 13 ENTEP always end with ENTER Once the above line is finalized you can call the following example LD EL CHADD HERE CHADD IS 23645 LD TEMP EL SAVE IT IN SOME PLACE LD CHADD 40000 SET CH ADD TO 40000 CALL 15363 CALL TR DOS AS FROM PASIC LD HL TEMP LD CHADD HL RESTORE CHADD CONTENTS RET 18 B H 1 UTILITY PROGRAMS PACKUP It is necessary in many cases that your files need to he duplicated to another disk for security reason This prorram allows you to dunlicate all the files including the disk password in a disk to another disk for a SINGLE drive user You will need a newly formatted disk with no files on it Any files on this disk will be overwritten when this program is executed Assuming that the password is BLUEPETER on the disk where there are a number of files To execute this program type RUN backup You will get the following display BACKUP 2 2 1984 TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH LTD PASSWORD FOR SOURCE DISK BLUEPETER INSERT SOURCE DISK THEN PRESS Y Y INSERT DESTINATION DISK THEN PRESS Y Y Because of the RAM capacity of the Spectrum only approximately 24 Ebytes of data can be duplicated at one time That is to say for a disk with more than 24 Kbytes of data to be duplicated it wil
5. USER MANUAL FOR BETA DISK INTERFACE Technology Research Ltd Unit 18 Central Trading Estate Staines Middlesex TW18 4XE C Copyright 1984 Dear customer Congratulation in making a wise choice Technology Research is confident that you will have many years of reliable service from the Interface The Beta disk interface has many advanced features which are summarised as follow security you can use the password facility to stop other copying your valuable programs easy and fast access you will be able to retrieve your data program a lot faster than using cassette tape Wide choice of disk drives you are not restricted to a particular make of disk drives You can use a 40 track or 80 track single or double sided disk drive In short you can use most makes of disk drives in the market today Flexibility you can increase the number of disk drives to a maximum of 3 This booklet contains all the information that you will need to make full use of the Beta Disk Interface Technology Research wishes you to have many happy years with the Interface Connector for other interface C W Power supply B Disk drive nort NELLE A Connect to back of Spectrum DIAGRAM 1 BETA DISK CHECELIST Please check that you have the following 1 Technology Research Disk Interface 1 Technolozy Research Software disk 1 Manual t2 CONTENTS Installation Procedure A simple guide for those
6. e following sequence of keys RETURN ENTER To go from Spectrum to D 0 S type in the followinx RAMDOMIZE USR 15360 and you will get the D 0 S prompt A e EXAMPLE 2 PREPARING A NEW DISK FORMATTING What do I have to do before I can use a brand new disk Before vou can use a disk track markers have to be put onto the disk All subsequent data that you nut in will be stored into these marked tracks If you only have one single disk drive you will need to put in the Software disk into the disk drive first assumnine you have already switched the Snectrum and the disk drive on and to have a new disk ready Here is what you have to do Type in the line RUN format CODE this command loads the program into the Spectrum Now you will receive further prompts to advise you what to type in IMPORTANT If you have one SINGLE disk drive then please take the Software disk out and put the new disk in If you DO NOT do this you will format vour Software disk and all the information on it will be lost You will need to tell the computer which disk drive you will be using If you only have one disk drive then lorically you have to call it disk drive A Then decide the vassword for the new disk and write it down somewhere you can refer to easily IMPORTANT If you lose the nassword then you vill not be able to access the data again Please tyne in the information when you are prompted If the disk is good then you
7. esearch at the top of the monitor This means that your Interface is working Insert the Technology Research Software Disk that comes vith the Interface into your disk drive You will have to put in a password in order to access the software stored on your disk The nassvord that is used in all Software disks is TRL You can always change it later if you wish On the monitor TV you will find the symbol A gt This prompt is issued by the Interface program and is a reminder that you are NOT in Sinclair BASIC You are connected to disk drive A which is always the default disk drive IMPORTANT NEVER disconnect the Interface from the Snectrum whilst the nower is still applied NEVER leave you disk in the disk drive while power is switched on or off A SIMPLE GUIDE FOR THOSE WHO ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE INTERFACE In this section you will be introduced to various Disk Operating System D 0 S Commands through simple examples They are probably something you are likely to do the first time you come to use the Interface The examples are arranged in an order a complete heginner is recommended to follow EXAMPLE 1 SWITCHING FROM Disk Oneratinz System D 0 S TO SPECTRUM BASIC AND VICE VERSA How do I know when to use Sinclair ASIC or Disk Operating System D 0 8 When you are in Sinclair BASIC you do NOT get a prompt If you get the prompt A gt then you are in D 0 S To go from D O S to Spectrum press th
8. h of data starting from RAM address 30024 is written to the 10th sector of the file OLD in disk drive B RANDOMIZE USR 15360 Use this command when youewish to return to D 0 8 from Spectrum BASIC 12 C 10 C 11 RUN This command will load a file from disk and run the prorram You can either run BASIC programs or a machine code program For example RUN filel for running a BASIC progam RUN filel CODE for running a machine code program Note When running a BASIC program from disk D 0 S always starts from the first line of the BASIC program i e GO TO 1 instruction SAVE This command will save a program in your Snectrum onto disk and the name of that program will be called filename You will also need to specify the file type if the nrorram is not a BASIC program file For a machine code program there are three extra inputs you will have to specify where the code is stored in the Spectrum by putting down the start address and lenrth The third parameter which is optional is the address for autorun The format is SAVE filename CODE starting address length autorun address For example SAVE filel to save a basic rogran SAVE filel CODE 10 200 to save a machine code program SAVE filel DATA a to save a variable array a SAVE filel DATA a3 to save a character array aS SELECTION OF DISK DRIVE The default disk drive is set for disk drive A The command to select other disk drives is a
9. l renuire several operations of the above process NOTE If you wish to abandon the program before it is executed press EDIT key 19 H 2 COPY This facility allows you to duplicate prorzrams data from one disk drive source to another disk drive destiration While you are using this program you can also execute other D 0 S commands see below which are described in Section C To execute this program type RUN copy The display on screen will be COPY VER 2 2 1984 TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH LTD COMMANDS ABRE CAT NEW newfile oldfile ERASE filename MOVE COPY newfile oldfile RETURN A You will notice that A is issued rather than A gt It is to remind you that you are in COPY MODE Example 1 If you are copying a file called Jenny from dis drive A source to disk drive R destination and you vould like to give a new file name Jacky to it then type A COPY B Jacky A Jenny Example 2 If you are copying all the files from disk drive A source to disk drive B destination then type A COPY Bs Ase If there is a file with the same name exist on disk 8 already you will have the follovinz options OVERWRITE EXISTING FILE Y N 20 FORMAT As described in 8 2 this Utility prorram allows you to format a new disk and to check for any disk errors i e bad disk To execute this program tyne RUN format CODE There are 3 options F for format If you like to see a working examp
10. le turn to section B example B 2 V for verify This option will check for disk error i e bad disk without destroying the data that you have on the disk for quit When you have finished formatting or verifying your disk you can use this option to leave the FORMAT environment 21 H 4 SCOPY This program allows you to cory a sinrle file from one disk to another disk for a SINGLE disk drive user hile vou are using this program you can also execute other D 0 S commands see below which are described in Section C To excecute the program type RUN scopy The display on screen will be SCOPY VER 2 2 C 1984 TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH LTD COMMANDS ARE CAT NEW newfile oldfile ERASE filename MOVE COPY newfile RETUSN Att You will notice that A is issued instead of A gt It is to remind you that you are in SCOPY MODE Example If you are copying a file format then type COPY format CODE The display will be INSERT SOURCE DISK THEN PRESS Y Y INSERT DESTINATION DISK THEN PRESS Y Y When the above process is completed it will return to A 22 I ERROR MESSAGES If D 0 S commands are from BASIC or Machine Code prorrams then D 0 S error messares will not be issued on the screen Instead they are stored in the 7280 Register Pair BC and they are in code The key to dicinher the code is No errors No files File exit No space Record number overflow Di
11. ped in the required password and you are in 1 0 5 environment To change the password to say JENNY type USR and type in the new nassword after vou receive the nromvt New password JENNY The password of the disk is now JENNY EXAMPLE 4 FILE TABLE How do I find out what s on the disk and how much space I have got left To find out what is on the disk you want a CATALOGUE of the items on the disk The command for this is CAT If you use this command on the Software disk you will cet the followinr Title Ultity 3 File s 0 Del File s A format C 10 cony B 2 copy C 14 364 Free The first three lines indicate the title of the disk is called Utility and there are 3 assessible files and there is no deleted file The next line informs you that there are three prograns called format C copy B and copy C in disk drive A Take the format C as example the letter code C within the bracket means that it is a machine code program In other words the file type is CODE For a BASIC program the code is E and for a data file the code is D The number following the file code is the length of the program In this case the length of the program is 10 sectors The last line shows you that you have 364 sectors left on the disk NOTE there are 4 sectors in 1K byte MANUAL FOR THE DISK OPERATING SYSTEM D 0 S COMMANDS ERASE This comand will allow you to remove a file from the disk You will have to
12. s follows enp for selecting disk drive B arcs for selecting disk drive C epin for selecting disk drive D 13 You can use this command to change the password of your disk The password must not be longer than 9 characters alpha numeric For example USR New password BLUEPETER 14 D SUICK REFERENCE GUIDE TO D O S a d Bn snc p CAT ERASE LOAD MERGE MOVE NEW PEEK POKE RANDONIZE USR 15360 RETURN RUN SAVE USR pore 23333 y X Xu to select disk drive to select disk drive to select disk drive C to select disk drive D to display the file names to rub out delete a file e c erase filename to losd a program from disk to Spectrum to combine 2 or more PASIC prorrams 4 to reorganise the location of files and pack them together to change the name of a file on disk e g new newname oldname to random read from a file to random write to a file to ro into D C S environment from Spectrum PASIC to return to Sinclair PASIC from D O S to load and run a program e f run name CODE to save a program onto disk e g save name to change disk passvord s ve Meet d diua se 15 E USING D O S COMMANDS IN PASIC PROGRAMS No doubt as your program skill develops vou vill exploit the fast access time of the disk drive Vou can do this fron within BASIC All the D 0 S commands that are described above can be called un from within BASIC line witk the
13. sk errors Syntax errors o uuotmnoco To obtain the error code set a variable equal to the D 9 S commands The variable will take on the value of the error code on the completion of the D 0 S command Example 1 LET A USR 15383 RE CAT Example 2 A simple program illustrating the use of this error code 10 CLEAR 65367 20 LET ERR USR 15363 REM LOAD COPY CODE 25 REM ERROR CODE IS RETURN IN THE VARIABLE ERR 30 IF ERR 1 THEN GO TO 100 35 REM IF ERROR CODE 1 THEN THE FILE CODE IS NOT ON THE DISK 40 RANDOMIZE USR 32768 50 PANCOMIZE USR 15360 100 CLS 110 PRINT AT 10 1 COPY CODE NOT ON DISK 120 STOP 23 J PIN CONNECTIONS OF THE THE DISK DRIVE CONNECTOR The disk drive connector see Diagram 2 is disizned to be Shugart compatible and the pin connections are detailed as below OV 1 2 0v 3 4 OV 5 6 Disk drive D OV 7 8 Index OV 9 10 Disk drive A OV 11 12 Disk drive B OV 13 14 Disk drive C OV 15 16 Head Load Motor on OV 17 18 Direction OV 19 20 Step OV 21 22 rite Data OV 23 24 Write Gate OV 25 26 Track 00 OV 27 28 Write Protected OV 29 30 Read Data OY 31 32 Side 1 OV 33 34 Diagram 2 PIN CONNECTIONS OF THE THE DISK DRIVE CONNECTOR SKETCH OF FRONT VIEW 24
14. te this command require 4K of memory for work space If there is insufficient memory space an error message will be displayed ERROR Example MOVE NEW Use this command when you wish to change the name of an existing file on disk You will have to specify the file tvpe if the file is not a basic program file Example NEW newfile oldfile for BASIC program files NEW newfile oldfile CODE for machine code prorram files NEW newfile oldfile DATA for a data file 11 PEEK This comand allows you to read any part of a file on disk and transfer the data into RAM You can only read a sector at a time and transfer the data to any location within the Buffer PAM The command is in the form PEEK filename Buffer address Record number For example ya Lo PEEK RECORD 30023 1 The first sector of the file RECORD is read and its content is written to RAM from the buffer address 30023 MN o PEEK B OLD 30024 10 The 10th sector of the file OLD on disk drive 3 is read and its content is written in RAN from the buffer address 30024 The command allows you to write a sector of data from RAM to any location in a file on disk The command takes similar form as PEEK i e Ne POKE FILENAME Buffer address Record Nunber For example y POKE RECORD 30023 1 A sector lencth of data starting from RAM address 30023 is written to the first sector of the file RECORD POKE B OLD 30024 10 A sector lengt
15. who are not familiar with the Interface Manual for the Disk Operating System D 9 5 commands fuick reference guide to D 0 8 commands Using D 0 S commands in BASIC programs How to convert programs from cassette to disk To call D 0 9 commands from Machine Code nrosrams Utility programs Error messages Pin connection of the disk drive connector Now disk INSTALLATION PROCEDUPE that you have the Interface and a disk drive or a number of drives please proceed according to the following steps Connect the Interface to your Spectrum please use the Diagram 1 on the inside cover of this booklet to identify the connectors on the Interface and plug the Interface directly into your Spectrum labelled A in diagram Plug your disk drive into the disk drive port labelled E in diagram in your Interface using the cable that comes with your disk drive Switch on your disk drive and leave your Spectrum switched off If the drive on indicator of your disk drive is on then the disk drive socket is upside down Turn the socket through 180 degree and try again You vill find that tre drive on light should so out Plug the power socket from your Spectrum rower sunnly into the power socket labelled C in diagram on your Interface When you switch on you vill notice your disk drive enzared momentarily This is normal On your monitor 1V you will see the current version of the software in your Interface and the name of Techolory P
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